Acronym Soup

It's all coming up right after this welcome back slices. Here's what you need to know today. In college soccer, the sixty four team NCUABLEA D one bracket is set. Thirty teams automatically qualified for the twenty twenty four NC Double Attorney aka the College Cup via their conference championship, while thirty four programs received at large bids. Duke, Southern cal, Florida State, and Mississippi State all received number one seeds

in the tournament. FSU are the defending champs. They beat Stanford five to one last season, securing the program's second national championship in three years and fourth in program history. To win the title, you gotta win six games. The first round gets underway this weekend, and the tournament continues till the national championship game Monday, December ninth. Will link to the full bracket and schedule in the show notes. In College Basketball News, USC sophomore sensation Juju Watkins has

a docu series about to drop. The series, titled On the Rise, Juju Watkins explores the Watts Natives connection to her family and to the southern Los Angeles community she grew up in, plus how both play a role in the success she's seen on and off the hardwood. Watkins, who calls herself an introvert, told The Hollywood Reporter that the series will quote give people more insight into who I am, my values, and my story because I take

so much pride in it end quote. Per Boardroom. She's the first women's college hooper to star in and executive produce her own show. The other executive producers are Rich Paul's Clutch Sports, Lebron James Uninterrupted, and four four forty. The series premieers on November twenty third at three pm Eastern on NBC, right before USC squares off with Notre

Dame More College hoops News. Onward State, a student run news outlet at Penn State University, published a story on Monday detailing allegations of player harassment and trauma by Penn State head coach Carolyn Keeger. Before I dig into this, I just want to let you know there will be some mentions of suicide, Okay. So, Onward State conducted interviews with thirteen of Keeger's former players from Marquette, Keeger's previous

coaching stop, and from Penn State. Three players spoke positively about Keeger, and two assistant coaches did as well, but the other ten players described playing for her as one of the worst experiences of their lives and that quote the culture Keeger instituted in her programs hurt many players' mental health, made multiple players suicidal, and incorporated aspects of racism, body shaming, bullying, and more end quote. Five players spoke on the record with Onward State, and eight others spoke

but requested anonymity. Some cited fear of retribution from Keeger. Several players said they left their respective programs because of Keeger's behavior. Former Marquette player Danielle King said quote in my senior year, I was dealing with depressive thoughts and suicidal thoughts. I was talking to Keeger about it, and she dismissed it. And she basically talked me down to go into seeing the student counselor or the councilor on

campus or whatever. And she was like, I just think you need to go to the gym more and basically shamed me in saying my work ethic was the reason

why I was depressed. End quote. Former Penn State player Jada Travasio Green told Onward State that after tearing an ACL for the second time, taking a medical disqualification, and dealing with her father's terminal illness, she said in part that Keeger was incredibly understanding and supportive and quote made me feel like I was still important and a valued member of the team, even though I was not always around. End quote. A PSU athletic spokesperson released the following statement

about the allegations. Quote, Penn State and Penn State Athletics take seriously any allegations of misconduct, and any reports are thoroughly reviewed. In addition, in her collegiate Athletics conducts annual student athletes surveys of its programs, as well as exit interviews with student athletes and staff members departing their respective

sport programs. Based on direct feedback from student athletes, coach Keeger and the women's basketball staff provide a positive and inclusive environment with a focus on their development on and off the basketball court. End quote. We'll link to Onward State's full story in our show notes and keep you updated on this as more reporting comes out to WNBA News.

The Chicago Sky introduced new head coach Tyler Marsh on Tuesday, and there are some cute shots of the former Las Vegas Ace's assistant walking into wind Trust Arena holding his two year old son in his arms as they checked out the JumboTron with his face on it. We'll link to those in our show notes. When asked about his biggest off season priority for the Sky, Marsh said, quote, shooting. We want shooting and lots of it. End quote. Sky Forward in front of the show, Elizabeth Williams was sitting

next to Marsha at the presser. She has not attempted a single three point shot in her ten season WNBA career, but Marsh turned to her and said quote Liz, We're going to get you shooting some threes too. End quote. In Hockey News. On Tuesday, the PWHL announced the launch of PWHL Media House, a new media venture created to boost conversation and content around women's hockey while also putting

players in the spotlight. As part of PWHL Media House, the league acquired the jockson Jills podcast, featuring co host Tessa Bonham and Julia Toscherry. The first episode of season two went live on Tuesday, detailing more about the POD's new home, reactions to the recent Jersey releases, and more. Hockey fans be sure to subscribe. Also check out iHeart Women's Sports new pod mom Sue Puck with Madison and Anya Packer. Much more on the PWHL later in the show.

In Golf News, WNBA Rookie of the Year, Caitlin Clark is hitting the links tomorrow at the Onica LPGA Pro Am in bel Air, Florida, presented by Gainbridge. She scheduled the tee off at seven am Eastern. She's going to compete alongside world number one Nelly cor and golf legend

Anica Sorenstam. The Golf Channel is going to offer highlights, live look ins, and preview coverage of the pro am, including a live stream of Clark's warm up range session featured on various social media channels and in round walk and talk with her and more. The LPGA Tour event at Theonico runs Tomorrow through Sunday, the seventeenth. Last year, American Lily Avoo took home the trophy I mentioned Gambridge.

There they joined the Women's Sports Foundation and the Athlete Partnership Platform Parody for the second annual Parity Week by Gainbridge, a nationwide movement intended to celebrate and amplify girls and women. So Gainbridge, Parody and the Women's Sports Foundation awarded a total of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars in grants to twenty one organizations that support girls and women through

athletics and education. And in addition to the grants, Parody Week includes two anchor women's sports events sponsored by Gainbridge, the AICA Tournament I just told you about and the Billy Jean Kingcup by Gainbridge, which Alex and I told you will be attending next week. And by the way, the BJK Cup Finals begin today in Malaga, Spain, with twelve countries battling it out on the hard courts the

last women's tennis trophy of the season. Canada, Australia, Checchia and Italy have each earned bys, while the US and seven other teams will play matches this week looking to earnest spot in the quarterfinals. The US plays Slovakia tomorrow. We're gonna take a quick break when we come back. Alex gets you up to speed ahead of the second season of the PWHL. Welcome back Slices. It's time for a little PWHL one oh one, which means it's time for Alex sixplains.

Olympics were still being held. In the same year, Wekleyfield in Chicago got lights and held its first ever night game. What a time to be alive. And in New York, a guy named Donald Wilson wanted to start a twenty sixteen women's pro hockey league that would pay players one thousand dollars a week. And remember this is nineteen eighty

eight money. So let's just set the scene here. Nineteen eighty eight, two years before the first ever women's hockey World Championship and ten years before women's hockey would be added to the Olympics. So if we're being totally honest, even as fans of women's sports, this idea was pretty bonkers and the league, which would have been called the United States Professional Hockey League, never got off the ground.

So let's fast forward ten years later. It's nineteen ninety eight, and ahead of the debut of women's hockey at the Olympics, a guy named Ed Saunders tried to launch another league. Now, the idea actually got a lot of news coverage and top players in the world were super interested in it, but without tangible support from either USA Hockey or the NHL, the idea didn't go anywhere, just given how much it costs to operate a league. But even then, people knew

that women's hockey was a really good idea. It's probably why the NHL trademarked the name WNHL all the way back in nineteen ninety eight, even if they have never made moves to actually launch the league itself. So for the next two decades or so, we're talking early two thousands, there weren't very many opportunities to make money playing hockey after gradu waiting from college, Lots of players had to pay to keep playing, whether it was for ice time

or travel costs. And we're talking about the best players in the world. Even national team members were struggling to make ends meet. During the late nineties and early two thousands, the landscape was pretty bleak. One of the only post grad leagues was the NWHL.

the hockey was really good. The talent was strong, but so many players weren't able to make the financial side of things work that they had to stop playing entirely. The landscape started to change in twenty fifteen, when for the second time, the NWHL was founded. This is the one that you're talking about, Sarah. This time it was a league in the United States, and it made history

as the first women's hockey league to pay players. Lots of the biggest names in the game quickly signed on, including Hillary Knight, who led the Boston Pride to the inaugural NWHL title in twenty sixteen. But behind the scenes things were pretty suss. The NWHL ended up slashing player salaries midway through season two, and players were dealing with really unprofessional conditions. They didn't have basic equipment, facilities, medical staff.

During most of the league's history, they were only making a couple thousand dollars each season. There was a players association, but it wasn't unionized, and it took until season eight for players to receive health insurance, so for nearly everyone involved, hockey still wasn't their full time job, not the players, not coaches, not staff, and because of that, teams could only practice a couple times a week in play games

on the weekend. The best players in the world were pretty much split between the NWHL and the US and the CWHL in Canada, but in twenty nineteen, the CWHL announced that it was shutting down rather than just signing on with the NWHL. Though in May of that year, about two hundred players announced that they would be sitting out the upcoming season instead of playing in the NWHL that led to the creation of a new organization, the PWHPA, a group of players mostly from Canada and the US

who wanted to see something new built. The years that followed were honestly pretty strange, because the NWHL continued to chug along. It rebranded as the PHF and brought in new ownership, which resulted in some solid improvements to pay, benefits and resources. All while hundreds of players in the PWHPA refused to play in the league. And while plenty of narratives pitted the players of the PWHPA against players of the PHF, reality was of course far more complicated.

What everyone involved wanted was better pay, playing conditions, and resources. It all came down to a difference in vision approach, and for players of the PWHPA that meant withholding their labor. That brings us to twenty twenty two, when it was reported that the PWHPA had entered an agreement with Billy Jean King Enterprises and the Mark Walter Group to explore the launch of a new professional women's hockey league, and

just over a year later it was made official. During the course of a very tumultuous couple of days last year, players from the PWHPA voted to ratify a collective bargaining agreement after months of negotiating, and at the same time ownership of the new league. The PWHL announced that they had bought out the PHF. The timeline for all of

this was pretty wild. Reminder, this was the summer of twenty twenty three when the league announced its plans to launch in January of twenty twenty four, and six months later they did just that.

Hillary Knight, Kendall Quinschofield, Natalie Spooner, Brian Jenner. Now, these players have been through it during their post grad careers and they became stars of the game, mostly while playing for their respective national teams, because that was the most consistent way for fans to watch women's hockey for most of the last decade. But there is so much young talent in this league that has been fun to watch.

You've got Minnesota's rookie duo now sophomore duo of Gray Sumwinkle and Taylor Heisei Boston Selina Mueller, who honestly kind of feels like a vet given that she's been around the international game for over a decade. And then you've got this year's number one draft pick, Sarah Fillier, who will play her rookie year for New York.

on five. But if Team A scores, nothing happens. They still play shorthanded for the remainder of the penalty. But the PWHL decided to change things up. If the short handed team scores, the player in the penalty box gets to go free, hence the jail break name. The idea behind the rule change is to incentivize teams to be more aggressive on the penalty kill. And let's also talk

body contact real quick. There is a misconception that women's talk he is a non contact sport, though anyone who's seen a single minute of a game will quickly learn that that is not accurate. However, the PWHL does allow way more contact than previous women's hockey leagues. We're going to go to the rules here at number fifty two, which says contact is allowed when quote there is a clear intention of playing the puck or attempting to gain possession of the puck.

That's coming up next, Welcome back. We want to give a shout out to certified citrusy Slice Pamela Mudway, who sent me a contest winning recipe for black bean soup and whose wife suggested that our little trio me Alex and mesh Aka Sam could go by the name Samsonite, packing knowledge and fun into every journey. Cute, but it will always make me think of dumb and dumber Samsonite. I was way off. Ryan Driscoll also wrote in and suggested seeds they're at the center of all the slices. Peals.

They hug all the slices and hold us together. Honestly, seeds are a bit Ryan, but peels is cute. I like that one. Another regular listener, alis Obradovich not only answered my call for soup recipes with one for lentil soup and one for Greek Trahana soup, which I've never heard of, but I'm excited to try. She also sent us some name suggestions, and a few of the ones we liked are the Triple Play, the Citrus Squad, Orange Zest Trio, the Squeeze, and the Juicy Three. Actually, that

last one might be dangerous. We'll stay away for the Squeeze though, that's got a nice ring to it, and Triple Play is super cute. We'll have to keep brainstorming. Alyssa also let us know what she's doing to improve her little corner of the world too. She said she's helping college students understand and contextualize the election, which is her actual job, but it still counts for sure. Supporting college hoops, specifically number twenty three ranked Illinois and screaming

into the void. I want to tell you, Alyssa, I have a friend who literally drove to the Woods the other day and screamed into some trees and she said it actually really helped, so something to consider. Thanks Pam, Thanks Melissa, Thanks Ryan. Thanks for continuing to engage with us slices. We hope all you other slices out there feel inspired to do the same, cause you know, we love that you're listening. But we want you to get in the game every day too. And we got a

new good gameplay of the Day today. Follow the PWHL teams on social so you can keep up to date with the new season. We'll link to the six squads socials in our show notes, and we love to hear from you on all other things too, so hit us up on email. Good Game at Wondermedia neetwork dot com, leave us voicemail at eight seven two two oh four fifty seventy slices. You know what I'm gonna say. Don't forget to subscribe, rate and review five stars. Please tell

us how much you love us. It's so easy to review. Watch porn on your packaging rating zero out of five

Glinda the Goods Review. In their effort to be more popular, the folks behind the Insane promo push for the Wicked movie might have moved a little too fast and missed some very important details like I don't know the URL printed on the packaging of their newly released Wicked Dolls because kids who brought home their alphabus and Glinda's found a website link on the box that was supposed to direct consumers to the official landing page for the film

wickedmovie dot Com, but instead suggested that they visit Wicked dot com, home of Wicked Pictures, which, per their site quote, was formed with a firm commitment to producing quality paroity porn movies end quote. Fun fact, Wicked Pictures hosted a golf hole at a celebrity tournament in Lake Tahoe, where actresses from their films greeted the golfers as they played through. And that's where our next President met Stormy Daniels. Cool cool, cool cool. Now it's your turn, rate and review. Thanks

for listening, See you tomorrow. Good game, Juju, good game, Gainbridge, Thank you, our next President. Good Game with Sarah Spain is an iHeart women's sports production in partnership with Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment. You can find us on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you Get Your Podcasts production by Wonder Media Network. Our producers are Alex Azzie and Misha Jones. Our executive producers are Christina Everett, Jesse Katz,

Jenny Kaplan and Emily Rudder. Our editors are Emily Rudder, Britney Martinez, Grace Lynch, and Lindsay Cradowell. Production assistants from Lucy Jones and I'm Your Host Sarah Spain